One of the key components of living off-the-grid is an effective method of water filtration, and a team of researchers at the Swedish KTH Royal Institute of Technology has uncovered a simple and affordable way of doing that. They have developed a technique to filter water using wood fibers.(more…)

Water is growing scarce in many regions of the world, which in turn leads to food scarcity as well. To combat this problem the Iranian firm BMDesign Studios has come up with an innovative concept for a new type of roof, which would effectively collect rainwater and funnel it to be used for various purposes.(more…)

Holland is a small country, and they have already found many ways to expand its territory into the sea. Now they’ve come up with one of their most ingenious ideas to date. The Maritime Research Institute Netherlands (MARIN) is currently working on designing an artificial island. (more…)

We’ve seen a lot of great conversions of buses and vans into mobile homes lately, and this latest one, completed by Charles Kern of Art Builders Guild is no exception. Charles is actually a professional bus homebuilder and he built this one for himself a couple of years ago. It’s called The Queen, and he built it as a full-time home for himself while he was still a 20-year old philosophy student. The Queen was created out of a 1982 Bluebird Bus with an International Harvester chassis. While still in operation, she was a rural district school bus, and then a youth group bus for the Queen of Peace Catholic Parish, hence the name. (more…)

Soon after architect Alexander Symes from Australia bought his first home, he realized that the maintenance tasks never end. To solve this, he carried out an extensive renovation, which resulted in Up-Cycle House, as he now calls it. The home features lots of recycled materials and was renovated with sustainability in mind. The house is located in Blackheath, New South Wales, Australia. (more…)

One of the biggest issues in tiny home design is where to place the bedroom. Some swear by the loft, others prefer the headroom that comes from having everything on a single level. The Australian firm The Tiny House Company has come up with a brilliant new solution to this dilemma. The bed they installed in their newest creation called Portal, is set on mechanical tracks and can be retracted all the way to the ceiling when not needed. (more…)